The present invention relates generally to contactless charging, and more specifically to devices, systems and methods related to smart batteries, battery management systems and fast charging processes.
The current energy density of batteries poses a serious limitation to the range-of-operation of unmanned autonomous vehicles, especially in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). Because of that, most UAVs cannot fly for a long time and cover large distances without having to land for a battery recharging. Furthermore, battery charging adds two more undesirable issues, namely, it often takes a long time and human intervention is required. Therefore battery charge implies an important constraint for various UAV applications.
Different ways of overcoming such difficulties have been presented in previous arts. For example, some recent applications (EP2664539A1, US20140032034A1, DE102013004881) use automated battery replacement as a method for automatic refueling in landing bases. This approach has several drawbacks. In the first place one has the mechanical complexity entailing the automatic replacement of battery cells and, secondly, the whole subsequent process necessary to have discharged batteries recharged, stacked and have them ready for next replacement on a cyclical basis. This complexity implies high-priced devices and, consequently, moving us away from low-end and mid-range markets.
Other applications (CN205051397U, CN204279932U) disclose base-station battery recharge units that use wireless coupling approaches. However, a key limitation of these approaches is that they do not treat fast charging batteries. In fact, high current charge rates and low charge times (for example 15 minutes or less) necessitate using both a battery management system (BMS) and a fast and reliable wireless communication channel. These points however are not properly described.
Wireless chargers are available for terrestrial and marine autonomous vehicles applications. In the case of marine vehicles contactless interface is a matter of necessity, since active electrical poles for recharging processes are not suitable for such kinds of environments. None of these solutions, however, includes the battery management system as a key element for controlling the charging process and allowing fast recharge cycles. In addition, previous approaches do not make use of the capability microprocessors in the battery management system, which can not only be used to control the discharge but also the charging processes as well. This transforms the charger apparatus into a slave, simple and low-cost device. In contrast to embodiment of the present invention, previous approaches do not make use of the electronic resources in an efficient and non-redundant manner.